The present specification relates to internet browsers and, in particular, to methods of bookmarking in such browsers.
An internet browser is a computer program by means of which resources available on the Internet (also referred to herein as the web) can be identified and retrieved, using a browser interface, for display by a user's computer. Such resources are typically pages of information known as web pages.
Each web page has a unique address called a Universal Resource Locator (URL), and the basic method of accessing a given web page is to key the URL into the browser and request its display (by, for example, clicking on a ‘Go’ button or pressing the enter key).
Over time, it is common for a user to accumulate a selection of web pages that he or she wishes to access on an ongoing or repeated basis. Instead of keying in the URL each time the relevant web page is to be displayed, the browser maintains a collection of page or other resource identifiers, visible or otherwise perceptible by the user, which obviates the need for the full URL to be provided. Each identifier in this collection is commonly referred to as a ‘Bookmark’ (or a ‘Favorite’). In a conventional browser graphic user interface (GUI) this collection of bookmarks is displayed in a special panel from which the selection of the required web page can be made. A bookmark, as displayed, normally consists of the title of the web page together with its URL, both of which are stored in an associated bookmark file of meta data. A bookmark does not contain any information as to how the web page was located or derived: that is to say, the journey to the bookmark is not recorded, only the destination. It will be recognized that the term “bookmark” may have two connotations, depending on the context. It may refer either to the physical representation of a resource of interest on the browser user interface or to the equivalent data, stored electronically in some sort of repository in the browser.
In general, the collection of bookmarks is presented to the user as a list of items (each item in the list being a given bookmark). Items in this list may appear in alphabetic order of the name of the bookmark, or in an alphabetic order of the URL, or in time-of-addition order, or in inverse of time-of-addition order, or the position in the list can be dynamic based upon usage (so that, for example, most used bookmarks appear towards the front of the list ahead of those accessed less frequently).